Gift Wrap Overload

Patrick and I hit the After-Christmas decoration sales today. I think we went a little overboard on the wrapping paper. We got 15 rolls. :)

Christmas Cookies

Patrick and I made a ton of sugar cookies. We decorated them on Christmas Day. Here are the pictures.







Here is my cute stocking. I hand crafted the holly.


My cute snowman.


The Edwards Family in cookie form.


Patrick's Strong Sad cookie.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was great at our house. Joslyn gave us the best Christmas present she could have given us, an extra hour of sleep that morning! Thanks Joss!

Once we woke up it was present time! Santa was really good to us this year!

Here is the tree the way Santa left it.


Joss's new Christmas ornament from Mamu and Papu Edwards.


One of Joss's new toys. She got this one from Mamu and Papu too. She loves it. It is called a giggle station and it just has a bunch of buttons that make noises when you push them. We had a hard time getting Joss to open any other presents because she wanted to play with this one too much.


Mommy helping Joslyn open her farm.


Here is me with some of my presents. First the deep fryer


Then a jigsaw puzzle. I know what I'll be doing for the next few days.


Here's Patrick with a few of his presents. First, a case of his favorite, apple soda.


Then his new shirt.


Finally, our family picture in our new Christmas jimmy-jams!


Hope your Christmas was wonderful too!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve, we had dinner with Patrick's "adopted family", the McClellans. They were all in town from Tennessee and Idaho.

I made 5 dozen sugar cookies to take for the party, but then didn't have time to frost them so we are going to do that Christmas day.

We read/acted out the nativity from Luke 2. Patrick, Joss and I got to be Joseph, Jesus and Mary.

Our Family Christmas picture- we couldn't take the camera case away from her without her screaming.


Patrick with Robert and Joss


Our little "homey"

Santa's Magic Key

My mom gave me this key the other night and attached was a poem.



"This key is very special, you see,
It won't work for you or me...

Hang it just outside your door,
Go to bed and worry no more...

Close your eyes and close them tight,
'Cause Santa Claus is coming tonight!"

Good thing we have this key now because we don't have a chimney!

Christmas Came Early

Christmas came early at our house. Well, part of it at least.

You see, I got Patrick tickets to the Suns game. The only problem was that the game was on the 23rd. Therefore, Patrick got one of his presents early.

So, last night, after Patrick got off work, we got ready and went out to dinner at L & L Hawaiian BBQ. So yummy, and free since Patrick has a gift certificate from work! After dinner, we dropped Joss off with Kristi and headed down to the arena.

We had a lot of fun at the game, even if we didn't win. :( Patrick lost his voice yelling at the players and the refs. The game was really close which always makes for a better game to watch. And since the Suns got more than 99 points we get free tacos!

Office Christmas Party

At my office, our Christmas parties and pretty big. Our first year we went to Donovan's steakhouse and had a really nice steak dinner. The next year, my boss flew all of us up to his house in Utah and we spent the weekend playing in the snow and riding his snow mobiles. This year we went to Morton's steakhouse.

For our appetizer's we got a platter of warm seafood and another platter of cold seafood. I'm not a really big seafood girl, but if its free I'm will to try some new things! I tried scallops, oysters, and lobster for the first time. The scallops were really yummy. They were wrapped in bacon. (Anything wrapped in bacon has to be good right?!)

For our meal, I got the filet mignon and Patrick got the New York Strip steak. We got the yummiest potatoes. They were sauteed with onions in bacon fat. (Again, bacon equals yumminess!)

For dessert, Patrick and I split the Hot Chocolate Molten Cake. So delicious! We were so stuffed when we were done, but it was pretty delicious!

Here's a picture of all of us at the table.
L to R: Lauren (Tony's girlfriend), Tony (Owner), Eric (Office Manager), Patrick and me, Teresa and Jamie (Co-workers and mother/daughter pair)

Family Christmas Party

Sunday was my family's Christmas party. We had such a good time. We made Cafe Rio Pork salad and burritos. Very yummy! My Dad gave a lesson about how Santa serves others and is kind to everyone and how he is a reminder for all of us to be good. We also sang songs and called by brother's family that weren't able to be there.

We also had the kids gift exchange. Joslyn loves to play with the presents she got from Preston and Grandma and Grandpa. Patrick and I are excited about the food storage starter that we got from my parents. We have been trying to get our started for a while and this will really help!

Here is Joss and Patrick opening her present from Preston



It's a leapfrog "My Pal Scout". He talks and sings songs to you and you can plug it into the computer and teach it to say Joslyn. It also learns her favorite food, animal and color.



Here is the present from grandma and grandpa. It's a xylophone piano. She played this in her carseat on the way home until she fell asleep.

11 Months Old

Joss is eleven months old! She is such a sweetheart. We love having her in our home. We just love her like crazy.

She is learning to walk and has even taken a few steps on her own. Of course, she did this for Daddy when Mommy was out shopping, so it doesn't really count. It only counts when Mommy gets to see it. :)

This last week she popped out four teeth and has one or two still creeping in. With all of that teething she was still a pretty happy girl. She did have some trouble sleeping, but I don't blame her.

She is super curious and into everything. She is such a climber too. She already knows how to climb onto our couch. Now she just needs to learn how to climb down feet first.

Joss loves to clap. She loves watching Wheel of Fortune because they clap all the time and she can clap with them.

She also LOVES to dance. She rocks and bounces to any type of music.

She also loves to play on Mommy and Daddy's bed. She thinks it is the best to bounce on.

Here are some pictures of our little cutie!

Rachael's Wedding

Last Saturday, my friend from high school, Rachael got married! We are very happy for her and wish her and her husband all the best! Here are some pictures we took at the wedding.

High school friends that came to the wedding.
L to R: Samantha, Kristi, Megan, Rachael, me, and Natalie


Patrick and me enjoying the reception


Kristi and Megan looking away


Patrick's butter smiley face- He says that the smile and the nose were already there so he had to put the eyes on to finish it.

Traditions

For Christmas, my sisters and I used to hide out in one of our bedrooms and sing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs using our brushes as microphones or we would pretend we were the conductor of the orchestra. It was a lot of fun.

This year, as I was cleaning the house, I turned on some Christmas music and I was singing along with them and dancing around like old times. I glanced over and saw Joss "singing" along too. She even had her brush. :) The tradition continues!

This is HUGE!

JOSS HUGGED ME TWICE YESTERDAY! Well, I guess technically she let ME hug HER, but still! This is BIG news!!!

Teeth!

That's right I said TEETH, not just tooth anymore! We officially have two teeth! One on top and one on bottom!

She has been keeping the top one hidden from me because it isn't one of the front two. But they are getting ready to come in right now too.

Soon she will have a full mouth of teeth and then it will be time for them to all fall out. Unless, of course she got my teeth, but that is a different story, for a different time.

New Jammies

It is finally starting to get cold here in Arizona! This makes me super happy since I love all the winter fun.

Putting Joss to bed in just her onesie doesn't keep her warm enough now; and since she refuses to be swaddled and/or keep a blanket on herself, we got her some new jammies.

Joss loves her new fleece feety pajamas. We call them her jimmy-jams. I'm not sure why. We just started calling them that.

She likes to head to the kitchen and slide all around on the tile in them. It's pretty cute.

She's a Natural

at gymnastics that is...

For my nephews birthday we went to his gymnastics class. The kids had so much fun and while they were off doing other fun things. Joss and I played around too.

Here is Joss doing pull ups on the high bar. She had some help in the video, but she can do them on her own. She does them in her crib all the time.


Now, she is climbing up the slide.


And finally, here she is crawling down the trampoline.

Christmas Decorations

I have some new decorations for Christmas this year and I thought they were really cute, so I wanted you to enjoy them as well.

My mother always makes her grandkids a special ornament each year. This is Joslyn's first one. I think my mom did a great job on it.



This is probably Patrick's favorite since it holds his treasured candy cane kisses.



My new nativity.


I hung these snowflakes from the window in our front room.


I'm working on quilting this wall hanging.


This is our tree. This year it has a candy theme.


I took some cinnamon candies and put a hook through the wrapper and hung them on the tree. The red cellophane glows really pretty with the lights.


I made these wreaths with peppermint wheels and red hots and a little hot glue. Really easy and, I think, really cute.


I bought these glass ball ornaments last year at Target and I just love them.


I love Christmas and I am so happy to be able to dress up my house this year! I hope you all have a great Christmas season!

Excuses

Patrick had to explain to his teacher that his baby ate his homework.

Vegas Trip 2009

We decided to head to Vegas to visit my brother's family for Thanksgiving weekend. We left Friday morning loaded to the top with lots of clothes and baby stuff as well as some Christmas presents from my parents.





The drive there was pretty easy going. Joss did really well. When she started to get a little fussy, we would give her a snack or a new toy to play with and she would be fine for a little while.

We stopped in Kingman for some lunch. Joss decided that my keys were tastier then anything we tried to give her.





We did get backed up at the dam a little, but not too bad.



We decided to go straight to Mike and Allison's apartment to unload some stuff. Joslyn was so excited to get out of her carseat and to see her cousins. We stayed and played with them for a while and then Allison was nice enough to watch Joss while we went and checked in to the hotel.



The hotel we stayed at is in the process of renovation. We got to stay on the newly renovated floor. All the doors to the rooms were BRIGHT orange. I had to take a picture to show my sister Kristi.



We also had the room by the big neon sign. That was not fun. Luckily the blinds kept out most of the light. Here is the view.



After checking in at the hotel, we went to Cafe Rio with Mike, Allison, Adam and Grace. It was our first time going there and it was yummy. Patrick did say that I make their pork barbacoa better then they do though. Just saying.

After dinner we were exhausted and went back to the hotel to sleep. Joss had different ideas though. She didn't want to go to sleep so it took a while to get her down. And then she decided that 4:30 was the perfect time to wake up. We were not so keen on it.

We decided that we would just get up and try to hit the buffet at the casino by Mike and Allison's since we were meeting up with them that morning. No such luck. The 24 hour buffet apparently doesn't open until 8am. So, we went to Coco's instead.

After meeting up with Mike, Allison, Adam and Grace we went to M&M World. We had fun looking at all the souvenirs. The movie and the tour were broken so we didn't get to do that stuff but we did get to see the nascar on display.









After M&M World we went to see the lions at MGM Grand. We got there early and had to wait about 45 minutes for the lions to be brought in, but when they did bring them out they walked them around the glass perimeter by putting raw meat on the glass panels. One of the trainers put the meat right in front of Grace's face. Grace wasn't scared at all by that and loved it when the lion licked it off the window. Afterward, Grace kept saying that she wanted to eat meat too.















After seeing the lions we went back to the hotel room to try to get Joss to take a nap, while Patrick watched the Arizona State vs. University of Arizona football game. Joss again didn't want to sleep so she roamed the hotel room and played with the phone, the alarm clock and the a/c unit.







After the game we decided to head over to the Fremont Street Experience and look around. Joss loved all the lights and watching all the people walking by. After that we went back to the hotel room and it was pretty easy to get Joss to nap, so we joined her.

That night Allison was nice enough to watch Joss for us while we went out just the two of us. I wasn't too sure we were going to get to go out because Adam and Patrick wanted to play video games and their game was taking so long. But we did get to go out.

We decided to go to the Bellagio and see the dancing fountains and the Conservatory. The Conservatory was set up to celebrate autumn and it was beautiful. The trees were piped so that water would drip from them. It was really neat. There were also golden leaves that were suspended from the ceiling.





















After the Bellagio, we decided to go to Nathan's Famous for dinner. Patrick was pretty hungry, that is why the face. So, much happier when our food was ready!





When we picked up Joss, we found out that Grace tried to use Joslyn as a pony. As Joss would crawl around she would try to sit on her back. Hopefully she doesn't try that with her new brother.

Luckily, Joss went to sleep much easier that night, but she did still wake up at 4:30. Our plan was to go to church on Sunday with Mike and Allison, but their ward starts at 1pm and that would mean that we wouldn't get home until 10:00 or later. So, we decided to just head home after Joss woke up. With her waking up so early we were able to breeze through the dam and we made it home by noon.

We had so much fun on our trip. We were a little bummed that we didn't get to see a new baby, but were glad to be able to spend time with Allison. A little trade off.